Video

Healthy, Sustainable Food Choices at Parks

June 5, 2013

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Transcript

Today is the announcement of the new "Healthy Parks, Healthy Food" initiatives where we are announcing and rolling out a series of new menu options that will be available at our concessions operations. More than 275 concessions at more than 75 national parks around the country.

This is really the places where American memories are made. We want to add one more memorable experience to that with a health spin to that. That as they can have these great experiences with family and friends in our national parks, they can also have a memorable food experience that is good for them, as well.

How do we use this platform that we have, whether it's the national parks or my role as Secretary of the Interior or the First Lady's role or the President's role in talking about the importance of healthy outdoor activities for families and children? Because they will be the next generation of people who will wear the kind of hat that John's wearing and Bob's wearing.

But also the kind of people that will bring their children out into nature. What better way to emphasize health than the food choices that they have?

We strive, all of us. All of the concessionaires, to make sure that our menus provide an element of choice to our visitors and to ensure that they always have an option to make healthy choices.

I think it's important to remember we're really in a crisis in this country when it comes to our kids' and our family's health. That's the backdrop by which we're doing this work here today.

One in three kids are overweight or obese and one in three of our youngest are on track to have diabetes in their lifetime. When you look at what that's going to do to our economy, our health care system, our education system, and even our ability to defend ourselves as a nation, the stakes are incredibly high. That's why today is such a big deal.

We're not mandating healthy food. We're not replacing the hamburgers with the chicken tenders or the fruit. This is about giving families that visit our national parks the choice of eating healthy when they're in America's great outdoors.